September 27, 2017
Today was a looooong drive from Fes to the Sahara just outside of the city of Merzouga. A friend of a friend runs the Sahara Garden. Brahim coordinated everything for us and welcomed us upon our arrival with open arms. Truly an amazing human being. We were welcomed with dinner and singing and dancing around a bonfire.
September 24, 2017
Our second stop in Morocco was the blue city of Chefchaoen. A small city located up on a hill, wandering thru the medina surrounded by so many shades of blue was quite a different experience from Tangier. We stayed at Casa Perleta, a small bed and breakfast recommended by our friend. It was perfectly located within the upper hill area of the medina. The blue hues of the walls of Chefchaoen are believed to have originated when the Jews came while escaping Hilter in the 1930s. The blue is said to serve as a reminder to lead a spiritual life while symbolizing the sky and heaven.
September 11 - 15, 2017
Enroute to our close friends' wedding in Greece we found a cheap flight to Paris via Reykjavik, Iceland and decided to take advantage and do a little stopover in an effort to (fingers crossed) see the northern lights. We decided to restrict our few days to just the southern highlights along the coast. The first thing we noticed was that even though it was supposedly shoulder/low season in Iceland there were significantly more people than when we came the year before in August.
We heard about Niseko through Jonathan’s brother and brother’s wife, Jason and Paula, who went to Niseko last season and couldn’t stop raving about the awesome snow. So, we knew we had to visit! We told a couple friends about it, not expecting anyone to come, but nine of our closest friends came out…and we couldn’t be happier about it! Then after four days, we had more friends come!
Before hitting the slopes in Niseko, we spent three days in Tokyo where more friends (Caitlin, Jack, Zak, Gena, and Pat) joined us!
Three days was definitely not enough time but we made the most of our time there. We stayed near the Shibuya Crossing, which is considered the busiest intersection in the world. It was the perfect location for us to jump on the JR train that took us to awesome, little spots around Tokyo.
Less than 24 hours back in the Bay Area, we jumped on a plane to Asia where we would start our three week adventure that would take us to Shanghai, Tokyo, Niseko, and Sapporo.
First stop – Shanghai. Our best friends, Hajime and Maily, moved here just under a year ago and we were really excited to visit them in their new city. Our other best friends from Chicago, Justin and Kelly, came out too!
We had a 18 hour drive ahead of us from Vail back to the Bay Area. Halfway we stopped at Bonneville Salt Flats. It looked completely different than when we passed thru during the summer. The flats had filled with water from recent storms and the reflection was incredible. Definitely worth the stop.
- Jonathan
Jonathan’s college friend, Carolyn, and her boyfriend, Nate, invited us out to ski with them and their friends in Vail for Martin Luther King weekend. We spent two days at Vail and checked out Beaver Creek for a day – definitely a fun couple of days. We rented a pretty awesome house and got in some good skiing and had good times with new friends!
- Allie
On our way to Vail, we made a few more stops at a couple new resorts - Telluride and Aspen. Telluride was a really cute small ski town with one main road with shops and restaurants, surrounded by beautiful, snowy peaks. We found ourselves at the same Mexican restaurant called Esperanza’s two nights in a row – they honestly had some of the best carne asada we’ve tasted.
Aspen was our next stop and we stayed at a little apartment tucked away in the Snowmass area. We were really impressed with the yummy food we had both nights – recommended by a friend of a friend. Hops Culture and The White House Tavern are definite must-do’s!
- Allie
Yes … Part 1 because there are just too many pictures to decide which are the best. The elusive Wave hike … a 6 mile roundtrip hike that starts in Utah and ends in Arizona. But it’s really not just about the Wave itself, the other sandstone features on the way to the Wave and surrounding the Wave are just as amazing. The Wave is located in Grand Staircase National Monument and managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
With a gap of 10 days between dropping Jason/Paula/Oliver off at the airport in Salt Lake City and meeting friends in Vail, we needed to fill the gap with a few other destinations. First was Powder Mountain, then with Utah still on the mind, the Wave started my mind going. Well, southern Utah isn’t exactly right next to northern Utah so I figured … why not stop by Brian Head and ski a day as a stopover, so we did.
We heard from our friend Blake that a group of young entrepreneurs had purchased a ski resort in Northern Utah a few years back with a dream to create their “perfect” town to foster new ideas and the sharing of knowledge. Since we were in the area, we decided to check it out. About an hour and a half north of Salt Lake City, just outside the small town of Eden, UT, is Powder Mountain.
On our third day, we headed out to the Snowbird Resort, which is about a 45 minute drive outside of Park City. It’s more of a local mountain, so we were looking forward to less crowds and different terrain – and it’s EXACTLY what we got. I fell in love with the mountain within the first two runs that we did….beautiful scenery, wide runs, varying pitches….and very few people. It’s like we had the whole mountain to ourselves. And to top it off, it was a gorgeous day so I feel like everyone’s spirits were up.
We spent the first day of the new year skiing at the Park City Resort, which we were able to walk to from our condo in town. Bright and sunny day in search of some good groomers and maybe even some powder? Yup, we were able to do a short hike off the Jupiter chair to hit some snow that was still barely touched. Jason rocked the beardhead to keep warm as the frigid temperatures stuck with us. We thoroughly enjoyed Park City, both the skiing and the town. We will be back for sure.
- Jonathan
After spending four days in Jackson Hole, we drove about five hours to Park City, Utah, where we would spend the next four days scoping out a few resorts in the area. The Canyons was our first stop – which welcomed us with super cold temperatures, to the point where it felt like our fingertips and toes and even noses were frozen! We have no idea how cold it was…but it definitely felt colder than Jackson Hole. It was really awesome to experience a different terrain than what we’ve seen so far…and see the endless rows of bare aspens against the white snow. Can’t say this was a favorite of ours, but definitely glad we came for a visit.
- Allie and Jonathan
We were able to ski four days at Jackson Hole and were blessed with a couple awesome bluebird groomer/cruiser days matched up with a few epic powder days. On a bluebird day, Jackson Hole is beautiful. The view as you drop into a run is just insane. Apparently pretty enough to paraglide off the side of the mountain from the main lodge.
We got to ride one more time in the snow coach on the way out of the park. Took a quick stop at Kepler’s Cascade where waaaaay back in the day, some dude lost his horse and was stuck out there for a little over 30 days in the snow! He somehow survived by staying warm near the thermal features of the area. Can you even imagine surviving for a month without modern gear?? The dude didn’t even have pockets in his pants! Pockets hadn’t been invented yet!??!! Insane!
So we knew we were going to drive out to Jackson Hole to do some skiing between Christmas and New Years, but we decided to schedule a last minute stay in Yellowstone National Park.
Apparently people book their holidays at Yellowstone out a year before, well, not us! I think we booked about a month ago. And it's not just ensuring there’s availability at the Snow Lodge either, you have to book space in a vintage Bombardier snow coach since the roads are closed to normal traffic once the snow starts falling.
We FINALLY made it up to Bend to visit our good friends, Matt and Kate, and skied a couple days with them at Mount Bachelor. After skiing, we may have bit off a little more than we could chew. We decided to start a 4.5 mile hike at 4 PM, knowing that the sun would go down at around 4:30 PM. Let’s just say that it was pitch black by the time we got back to the car. We did get to see some nice colors in the sky right around dusk though.
Note to self … don’t hike in the snow in the winter when its about to get dark.
- Jonathan
It's been quite a while since we posted anything, sorry about that …
Going back almost a month to my birthday, December 1, we cruised up to Mammoth to ski a few days on our way up to Tahoe. There is really nothing like skiing on a Monday; it completely ruins weekend skiing for you.
After skiing, we drove out to Mono Lake. This place is kind of magical. The tufa towers are calcium-carbonate spires formed by interactions between freshwater springs (previously underwater) and the alkaline lake water. The formations are a little unreal, feels kind of like another planet. Mono Lake is an ancient lake, over 1 million years old. Definitely worth a stop if you’re up near Mammoth.
